The CEO of Take-Two has given an update about the possibility of a Red Dead Redemption movie during the company’s latest financial report. Interest in making movies based on video games has increased lately, especially after the success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie and The Last of Us TV series. While fans are getting more excited about a Red Dead Redemption movie, the CEO explains that the situation is not simple.
After the popularity of successful video game adaptations, some are looking at Take-Two as the next potential success story, since the company has well-known games like Borderlands, Grand Theft Auto, and Red Dead Redemption. However, during the most recent quarterly meeting with investors, Take-Two’s CEO Strauss Zelnick mentioned that this is not necessarily true. He said that making films and TV shows has a lot of risk for the relatively small chance of making money. He also pointed out that the successes of The Super Mario Bros. Movie and The Last of Us are exceptions and there have been many failures that lost money.
Take-Two already has a few movies based on games in progress, like Borderlands and BioShock. Zelnick suggested that more such projects could happen in the future, but the company will be careful in choosing what to make. He said that Take-Two won’t make decisions about its future or its games based only on how well someone else’s movie did. Although he didn’t name names, he implied that fans shouldn’t expect a Red Dead Redemption movie soon, and the possibility of one happening might depend on how well their current movie projects do.
It’s important to mention that movies have been a challenge for Take-Two before. In 2008, the Max Payne movie didn’t do very well, earning $40.7 million in the US against a $35 million budget. The company is facing similar challenges now, especially with the Borderlands movie. They’ve been working on it for the past two years, and even though they’ve talked about its progress, it won’t be released for another year.
Interestingly, there are other things causing concern for the company too. During the same financial report, Zelnick defended the $50 price tag for the Switch port of Red Dead Redemption, which includes the Undead Nightmare expansion. This expansion used to be sold separately. It’s unclear how well this justification will affect sales when the game is released. In any case, it will be intriguing to see how Take-Two handles the future of the Red Dead Redemption series.